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ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN 







ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

THE BATTLE OF THE GIANTS 

BY FREDERICK TREVOR HILL 

THE PARENTS OF LINCOLN 

BY IDA M. TARBELL 

AN APPEAL TO PATRIOTISM 

BY RICHARD LLOYD JONES 




The Lincoln Inkstand 

[ See page 34 ] 



A SOUVENIR OF 

LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY. FEBRUARY 12, 1907 

PUBLISHED BY 

THE LINCOLN FARM ASSOCIATION 






LINC:! 



Copyright 1907 by 
The Lincoln Farm Association 







THE BATTLE OF THE GIANTS 

FREDERICK TREVOR HILL 



0^ 



N Friday the 20th of August, 1858, every 
turnpike, cross-road, and country lane 
leading to Ottawa, Illinois, was alive with 
travelers journeying on horseback, in wagons, and 
afoot, under clouds of dust and a burning summer 
sun. All sorts and conditions of conveyances were 
included in the straggling processions. Here a 
clumsy hay-cart lumbered forward, its merry crowd 
of young straw riders laughing and singing as they 
bumped along over the ill-made roads ; here a can- 
vas-covered ship of the desert jolted its solemn 
family party, children's faces staring from its 
cavernous entrance, and a stovepipe protruding 
from its roof; here a couple of short-legged 
urchins, innocent of shoes or stockings, proudly 
bestrode a shaggy old farm-horse, guiding it by 
a bit of rope tied loosely around its neck; here 
a market-wagon loaded with men and provisions 
towed a buggy accommodating the women and 
babies of the farm ; and here, there, and every- 
where trudged dusty men and barefoot boys and 
girls, converging from all points of the compass 
toward the county seat of La Salle County. 

Ottawa was better prepared than most of the 
circuit towns for such an invasion, for the sessions 
of the Supreme Court were held there twice a year, 
when all the countryside made it a market, but the 

[3] 



limits of its hospitality were soon reached^ and long 
before the vanguard of the approaching army ar- 
rived upon the scene its accommodations for vis- 
itors had been completely exhausted. Indeed, it 
is doubtful if there was a town anywhere in Illi- 
nois, with the exception of Chicago — some seventy 
odd miles away — that could have risen to the 
emergency, for substantially the entire population 
of the surrounding country was descending upon 
the little village. All work was practically sus- 
pended in the adjoining counties, the fields were 
deserted, most of the farmhouses showed barred 
doors and shuttered windows, and the wayfarers 
were evidently on pleasure bent, laughing and jok- 
ing with each other as they passed. 

But if the inhabitants of Ottawa were at all 
alarmed at the prospect of having to provide for 
the advancing hosts, their fears were soon relieved. 
One by one the wagons drew off on the prairie as 
they approached the town, groups of pedestrians 
congregated about them, and by nightfall the sky 
was lit up by their camp-fires, the smell of cooking 
mingling with the smoke. It was a good-natured, 
friendly crowd that occupied the bluffs and spread 
itself over the fields, greetings were exchanged, 
hospitality proffered, provisions shared, and wher- 
ever two or three were gathered together the sub- 
ject of conversation was the coming struggle be- 



ABRAHAM L I N C O L IST 

tween the Big and the Little Giant^ for Douglas 
and Lincoln were matched to meet in debate the 
next day, and this was the event that was drawing 
the populace from far and near. 

For months Illinois had been watching the rival 
Senatorial candidates fighting at long range, but 
no one except a few lawyers who had witnessed 
their occasional contests in the courts had seen 
them pitted against each other, and the prospective 
meeting had aroused unprecedented interest and 
no little speculation as to its result. To the enthu- 
siastic adherents of Douglas the outcome was not 
in doubt. No one, in their opinion, compared with 
the little Judge, who had proved himself more than 
a match for the ablest Senators in Washington, 
and it was their belief that it would not take him 
long to "chaw up Abe Lincoln or anybody like 
him." The partizans of Lincoln were not without 
misgivings for their favorite, but they put on a 
bold front, retorting that the Little Giant would 
find that he had bitten off more than he could 
"chaw" by the following evening, and the fact that 
he had not been overanxious to accept the chal- 
lenge of his opponent lent force to their assertions. 
Stout as the claims and counter-claims of the rival 
parties were, there was very little ill-feeling or 
bitterness exhibited, for every one was in a holiday 
mood, and the immediate interest centred more 

[5] 



upon the merits of the rival champions than upon 
the principles they represented. Indeed, many of 
those around the camps on that hot Friday night 
had not made up their minds upon the great issues 
at stake and many a vote de23ended on the coming 
contest. 

The first light of dawn on Saturday morning 
showed picketed horses grazing at the limits of 
their tethers, kitchen utensils piled around the 
smoldering fires, men and boys sleeping out in the 
open or under improvised shelters and women rest- 
ing inside the hay-carts, buggies, and emigrant 
wagons. Before the sun had fairly risen, how- 
ever, the campers were astir. Newcomers could be 
seen approaching in distant clouds of dust, and 
before long the advance guard of the invaders 
began pouring into the town. 

The county seats of the Illinois circuits in 1858 
closely resembled typical New England villages, 
and each bore a strong family resemblance to the 
other. In the centre of the public square, around 
which the town was grouped, stood the circuit 
court-house, a substantial building of brick or 
stone, its roof surmounted by a dome or cupola, 
and its portico supported by tall white columns. 
The square itself was guarded from the highway 
by a wooden hitching-rail, and on court days this 



was well-nigh surrounded by teams of all sorts, 
the wagons and buggies extending into the broad 
streets. Such was the little town of Ottawa on 
August 21, 1858, and long before noon every inch 
of space along the hitching-rail was occupied. Near 
the centre of the square in front of the court-house 
a rough pine board platform had been erected, and 
before this the crowd immediately began to gather, 
the older men and women sitting down on the grass 
and settling themselves for a long wait rather than 
lose their posts of vantage, while the young people 
hastened away to watch the arrival of the local 
political clubs, some of which were marching from 
the nearby towns, headed by their bands, and others 
were expected by the incoming trains. Campaign 
uniforms were not yet in generr.l use, and the 
sashes and scarfs adopted by the marching clubs 
later in the year were not then in vogue, but all of 
them carried banners or placards of some sort, 
blazoning forth their sentiments in no uncertain 
form, such as "Edgar County for the Tall Sucker!" 
and similar homely protests of loyalty. 

The Douglas procession, over a mile long and 
headed by the best band, moved down what was 
known as the Peru road to Buffalo Rock, where 
they met the Democratic candidate and escorted 
him to the Geiger House, his advent being an- 
nounced by a roaring salute from two brass twelve- 

[7] 



pounders in the centre of the town; and shortly 
after twelve o'clock a special train of seventeen 
cars arrived from Chicago^ Joliet, and the sur- 
rounding country, its passengers and the waiting 
crowds joining in a tumult of cheers for Lincoln, 
behind whose gaily decorated carriage they formed 
a noisy escort to the residence of the mayor. From 
that hour the streets were almost imjDassable, the 
rival processions came to a standstill, and the bands 
wedged in the crowd blared defiantly at each other. 
Almost more interesting than the paraders with 
their flags and banners were the pedlers and fakers 
who fought their way in and out of the throng, 
shouting their bargains and displaying wares the 
like of which many of the country folk had never 
seen before, and at which they stared in fasci- 
nated wonder. Almost every farmer had something 
to sell or to "swap," and the whole atmosphere of 
the place was that of a great county fair or market 
meeting. No previous event in the history of Ot- 
tawa had, however, witnessed anything like the 
multitude that swarmed in its streets, and it is 
extremely doubtful if there has ever been a similar 
outpouring of the people anywhere in Illinois, 
considering the existing population. There were 
at that time not much more than a million and a 
half inhabitants in the whole of Illinois. Yet at 
this one little country town more than fifteen thou- 

[81 




The bookcase and desk from Lincoln's law library 

destroyed by fire June s, i906 

[See notes, page 34] 




The office chair used by 
Lincoln in his law library 

[See notes page 34] 



sand people were gathered. Only a small pro- 
portion of this mighty assemblage could by any 
possibility hope to hear the speakers. Even those 
who had struggled to get good positions for their 
wagons against the rail soon discovered that they 
were too far away, and many abandoned them, 
and took their chances in the crowd. Meanwhile 
something very like a free fight was going on, for 
the speakers' platform, having been carelessly left 
unguarded, had been stormed by the audience and 
the Reception Committee was vainly striving to re- 
gain possession. Again and again the intruders 
were ejected, but others swooped down upon the 
stand every time it was cleared. Finally some of 
the more adventurous invaders clambered to the 
roof and, dislodging some of the boards, let 
them down on the heads of the officials, and this 
brought matters to a climax, for the marshal, who 
had been galloping about the town all morning, 
promptly organized a guard which easily restored 
order. 

On the platform chairs sat the members of the 
reception committees, the chairman, the modera- 
tors, and the reporters, among whom were Robert 
R. Hitt, official stenographer for the "Chicago Press 
and Tribune"; Horace White, representing the 
same paper; Chester P. Dewey, of the "New York 
Evening Post"; Henry Villard, of the "New York 

[9] 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Staats-Zeitung/' and Messrs. Binmore and Sheri- 
dan of the "Chicago Times." 

It was half-past two in the afternoon before a 
great shout announced the arrival of the cham- 
pions, and a short, stout, but powerfully built man 
forced his way through the crowd, and, stepping to 
the edge of the platform, bowed gracefully to the 
cheering multitudes. There was confidence in 
every line of Douglas's strong, clear-cut, clean- 
shaven face; confidence and complete self-posses- 
sion in his every movement — confidence and deter- 
mination in the glance he cast at his awkward 
rival, who, accompanied by his host, Mayor Glover, 
and the Congressional candidate, Owen Lovejoy, 
clumsily acknowledged the genuine burst of ac- 
clamation which greeted his appearance. 

No time was wasted in introducing the speakers. 
Neither of them required such a formality, and yet 
it is improbable that a majority of the spectators 
had ever seen either man before. Certainly Lin- 
coln was not personally well known to many men 
in Illinois outside of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, 
and Douglas had spent far more time in Washing- 
ton than he had in his own State during the last 
six years, while the population was increasing by 
leaps and bounds. Douglas's reputation was, how- 
ever, national in its scope — every one knew his 



record — while Lincoln was comparatively unknown. 
Such were the advantages and disadvantages of 
the combatants as Douglas rose and, with a brief 
reference to the vast audience confronting him, 
plunged at once into an argument attacking Lin- 
coln and the Black Republicans as Abolitionists in 
disguise. Almost from his opening words the 
speaker assumed an air of superiority, stating his 
facts in a convincingly authoritative tone and belit- 
tling his adversary's political pretensions and gen- 
erally treating him with such marked condescension 
that many of Lincoln's friends, watching his dark, 
homely, careworn face, began to fear that he had 
displayed more courage than wisdom in courting 
comparison with so brilliant a rival. Douglas was 
not slow to press his advantage, and, encouraged 
by the laughter of his auditors, he proceeded to 
attack his opponent's doctrines. 

"Let me read a part of them," he continued 
contemptuously. "In his speech at Springfield to 
the convention which nominated him for the Sen- 
ate, Lincoln said: 'A House divided against itself 
can not stand. I believe this Government can not 
endure permanently half Slave and half Free. I 
do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not 
expect the House to fall — but I do expect it will 
cease to be divided. It will become all one thing 
or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery 

fill 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

will arrest the further spread of it and place it 
where the public mind shall rest in the belief that 
it is the course of ultimate eaiinction, or its advo- 
cates will push it forward till it shall become law- 
ful for all the States — old as well as new — North 
as well as South !' " 

The words were scarcely uttered before a spon- 
taneous burst of cheering rent the air, swelling to 
a mighty shout of approval and admiration from 
thousands of lusty lungs. 

For a moment Douglas stood disconcerted by 
the unwelcome demonstration, but almost immedi- 
ately recovering his self-possession, he savagely 
attacked the interrupters. 

"I am delighted to hear you Black Republicans !" 
he roared. "I have no doubt that doctrine expresses 
your sentiments, and I will prove to you now that 
it is revolutionary and destructive of this Govern- 
ment !" 

From that moment, however, the orator changed 
his tactics, indulging in no further personal com- 
ments and devoting himself to serious argument 
and pointed questions until he again fixed the 
attention of his hearers and, regaining his con- 
fidence and good temper, closed his speech to a 
burst of well-earned cheering. 

Then Lincoln slowly rose from his chair and 
faced the expectant multitude, presenting a con- 
[1-2] 



trast to his opponent almost as painful as it was 
apparent. His long, lank figure was clothed in 
garments as rusty and ill-fitting as the Judge's 
were fresh and well made. His coarse, black hair 
was disheveled, his sad, anxious face displayed no 
confidence, his j^osture was an ungainly stoop, his 
manner was dej ection itself. For a moment he gazed 
over the audience as though at a loss for words, 
and when at last he began speaking another dis- 
appointment chilled his supjjorters' hopes. His 
voice was uni3leasantly high pitched, penetrating, 
and almost shrill, and his opening sentences, com- 
monplace enough in themselves, were uttered hesi- 
tatingly, as though he were groping for words. 
Finally he took a note-book from his pocket and 
asked permission of the audience to read part of 
a printed speech he had made in 1854. 

"Put on your specs !" called some one in the 
crowd, and the audience roared, expecting a smart 
reply. But no repartee came from the man whose 
reputation as a wit and a jester was supposedly 
assured. 

"Yes, sir, I am obliged to do so," he responded 
gravely. "I am no longer a young man." 

The disappointment of the speaker's friends 
was plainly visible, but even as they strove to con- 
ceal their embarrassment their champion began to 
retrieve himself. Still speaking slowly, but with 

[13] 



gathering energy, he gradually straightened to his 
full height, his voice lost something of its rasp and 
gained in volume and quality, his eyes brightened, 
his face became more animated, his gestures freer, 
and his words commenced to flow more easily. Lit- 
tle by little the hopes of his supporters revived and 
all signs of restlessness disappeared, the audience 
listening silently and with growing interest, for 
Lincoln's voice, carrying much farther than his 
opponent's, reached the very outskirts of the crowd. 
Those who had come expecting to be amused by 
anecdotes had reason to feel aggrieved, however, 
for no funny stories or drolleries of any kind fell 
from the speaker's lips, yet the vast assemblage 
listened quietly to every word he spoke. It was no 
sudden burst of eloquence or any trick of decla- 
mation which won that tribute of respectful silence, 
and yet the man was eloquent with his earnest sin- 
cerity, his simple logic, his clear analysis, his 
orderly presentment of intelligent argument. With 
steadily increasing force he spoke directly to those 
before him, his wonderful eyes seeking individuals 
in the crowd and holding them enthralled until 
each hearer felt himself the one distinguished and 
specially addressed. There was no escaping him; 
he appealed personally to all within sound of his 
voice, meeting his adversary's arguments with a 
clarity and simplicity of statement that all could 
[14] 



grasp, until he dominated the audience, swaying 
it to his will. Then slowly, almost imperceptibly, 
he passed to his peroration, his sentences ringing 
out boldly and defiantly and arousing a tumult of 
cheering that died down only to burst out again, 
swelling to shout after shout of frenzied approba- 
tion as he closed. 

With half an hour at his disposal for reply, 
Douglas struggled hard to stem this tide of popu- 
lar approval and regain his lost advantage, but in 
vain. At the close of his rejoinder the audience 
applauded and then — as though by common con- 
sent — stormed the platform and carried his oppo- 
nent off upon their shoulders, five thousand men 
struggling to share in the ovation. 

Thus ended the first battle of the Giants, but 
six others remained to be fought. At Freeport, 
on August 27, before another mighty audience, 
Lincoln forced his opponent to answer the question 
which split the Democracy and shattered his hopes 
of the Presidency forever. By the time Jonesboro 
was reached, on September 15^ Douglas had lost 
his jaunty confidence and begun striking out right 
and left. At Charleston while Lincoln was speak- 
ing he could not keep his seat, but paced nervously 
up and down the platform behind his adversary, 
watch in hand. At Galesburg, on October 7, he 
[15] 



ABRAHAM LINCOLNT 

was visibly alarmed and fighting hard. Mean- 
while the contest upon which he had entered so 
light-heartedly was draining his purse and his 
strength. To pay for the special train which car- 
ried him about the State and to meet other heavy 
campaign expenses he was mortgaging his property 
and straining every nerve to keep his head above 
the dangerously rising tide. At Quincy he looked 
haggard and worn, and when at length the final 
contest took place at Alton, on October 15, his 
strength and nerves and money were exhausted. 

Eight votes was the margin of his victory — a 
victory that cost him eighty thousand dollars and 
the Presidency, while Lincoln returned to the 
Eighth Circuit and the practise of the law with 
a total outlay of less than a thousand dollars and 
a national reputation, destined within two years 
to sweep all opponents from the field and to place 
him forever in the hearts of his countrymen as 
"The First American." 



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THE PARENTS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

IDA M. T A R B E L L 



a 



MONG the many wrongs of history — and 
they are legion — there is none in our Amer- 
ican chapter at least which is graver than 
that which has been done the parents, and par- 
ticularly the mother, of Abraham Lincoln. Of 
course, I refer to the widespread tradition that 
Lincoln was born of that class known in the South 
as "poor whites," that his father was not Thomas 
Lincoln, as his biographers insist on declaring, but 
a rich and cultured planter of another State than 
Kentucky, and that his mother not only gave a 
fatherless boy to the world, but herself was a 
nameless child. The tradition has always lacked 
particularity. For instance, there has been large 
difference of opinion about the planter who 
fathered Abraham, who he was and where he came 
from. One story calls him Enloe, another Cal- 
houn, another Hardin, and several different States 
claim him. Only five years ago a book was pub- 
lished in North Carolina to prove that Lincoln's 
father was a resident of that State. The bulk of 
the testimony offered in this instance came from 
men and women who had been born long after 
Abraham Lincoln, had never seen him, and never 
heard the tale they repeated until long after his 
election to the Presidency. Of the truth of these 
statements as to Lincoln's origin no proof has ever 

[171 



been produced. They were rumors^ diligently 
spread in the first place by those who for political 
purposes were glad to belittle a political opponent. 
They grew with telling, and^ curiously enough^ two 
of Lincoln's best friends helped perpetuate them — 
Messrs. Lamon and Herndon — both of whom wrote 
lives of the President which are of great interest 
and value. But neither of these men was a stu- 
dentj and they did not take the trouble to look for 
records of Mr. Lincoln's birth. They accepted 
rumors and enlarged upon them. Indeed^ it was 
not until perhaps twenty-five years ago that the 
matter was taken up seriously and an investigation 
begun. This has been going on at intervals ever 
since^ until I venture to say that few persons born 
in a pioneer community^ as Lincoln was^ and as 
early as 1809, have their lineage on both sides as 
clearly established as that of Abraham Lincoln. 
It takes^ indeed, a most amazing credulity for 
any one to believe the stories I have alluded to 
after having looked at the records of his family. 
Lincoln himself^ backed by the record in the Lin- 
coln family Bible^ is the first authority for the 
time and place of his birth, as well as the name 
of his father and mother. The father, Thomas 
Lincoln, far from being a "poor white," was the 
son of a prosperous Kentucky pioneer, a man of 
honorable and well-established lineage who had 

[18] 



come from Virginia as a friend of Daniel Boone, 
and had there bought large tracts of land and 
begun to grow up with the country, where he was 
killed by the Indians. He left a large family. 
By the law of Kentucky the estate went mainly to 
the oldest son, and the youngest, Thomas Lincoln, 
was left to shift for himself. This youngest son 
grew to manhood, and on June 10, 1806, was mar- 
ried, at Beechland, Kentucky, to a young woman 
of a family well known in the vicinity, Nancy 
Hanks. There is no doubt whatever about the 
time and the place of their marriage. All the legal 
documents required in Kentucky at that period for 
a marriage are in existence. Not only have we the 
bond and the certificate, but the marriage is duly 
entered in a list of marriage returns made by 
Jesse Head, one of the best-known early Methodist 
ministers of Kentucky. It is now to be seen in the 
records of Washington County, Kentucky. There 
is even in existence a very full and amusing ac- 
count of the wedding and the fan-fare which fol- 
lowed bv a guest who was present, and who for 
years after was accustomed to visit Thomas and 
Nancy. This guest, Christopher Columbus Gra- 
ham, a unique and perfectly trustworthy man, a 
prominent citizen of Louisville, died only a few 
years ago. 

But while these documents dispose effectually of 

[19] 



the question of the parentage of Lincoln, they do 
not, of course, clear up the shadow which hangs 
over the parentage of his mother. Is there any- 
thing to show that Nancy Hanks herself was of 
as clear and clean lineage as her husband ? There 
had been nothing whatever until, a few years ago, 
through the efforts of Mrs. Caroline Hanks Hitch- 
cock of Cambridge, Mass., who had in preparation 
the genealogy of the Hanks family in America, a 
little volume was published, showing what she had 
established in regard to Nancy Hanks. Mrs. 
Hitchcock had begun at the far end of the line — 
the arrival of one Benjamin Hanks in Massachu- 
setts in 1699. 

She discovered that one of his sons, William, 
moved to Virginia, and that in the latter part of 
the eighteenth century his children formed in 
Amelia County of that State a large settlement. 
All the records of these families she found in the 
Hall of Records in Richmond. When the migra- 
tion into Kentucky began, late in the century, it 
was joined by many members of the Hanks set- 
tlement in Amelia County. Among others to go 
was Joseph Hanks with his wife, Nancy Shipley 
Hanks, and their children. Mrs. Hitchcock traced 
this Joseph Hanks, by means of land records, to 
Nelson County, Kentucky, where she found that he 
died in 1793, leaving behind a will, which she 

[201 



discovered in tiie records of Bardstown^ Kentucky. 
This will shows that at the time of his death 
Joseph Hanks had eight living children^ to whom 
he bequeathed property. The youngest of these 
was "My daughter Nancy/' as the will puts it. 

Mrs. Hitchcock's first query, on reading this 
will, was : "Can it be that this little girl — she was 
but nine years old when her father died — is the 
Nancy Hanks who sixteen years later became the 
mother of Abraham Lincoln?" She determined to 
find out. She learned from relations and friends 
of the family of Joseph Hanks still living that, 
soon after her father's death, Nancy went to live 
with an uncle, Richard Berry, who, the records 
showed, had come from Virginia to Kentucky at 
the same time that Joseph Hanks came. A little 
further research, and Mrs. Hitchcock found that 
there had been brought to light through the efforts 
of friends of Abraham Lincoln all the documents 
to show that in 1806 Nancy Hanks and Thomas 
Lincoln were married at Beechland, Kentucky. 
Now, one of these documents was a marriage bond. 
It was signed by Richard Berry, the uncle of the 
little girl recognized in the will of Joseph Hanks. 
Here, then, was the chain complete. The marriage 
bond and marriage returns not only showed that 
Nancy Hanks and Thomas Lincoln were married 
regularly three years before the birth of Abraham 
[21] 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Lincoln, thus forever settling any question as to 
the parentage of Lincoln, but they showed that this 
Nancy Hanks was the one named in the will. The 
suspicion in regard to the origin of Lincoln's 
mother was removed by this discovery of the will, 
for the recognition of any one as his child by a 
man in his will is considered by the law as suffi- 
cient proof of paternity. 

Now what sort of people were Thomas Lincoln 
and Nancy Hanks ? It has been inferred by those 
wl\o have made no investigation of Thomas Lin- 
coln's life that Nancy Hanks made a very poor 
choice of a husband. The facts do not entirely 
warrant this theory. Thomas Lincoln had been 
forced from his boyhood to shift for himself in a 
young and undeveloped country. He is known to 
have been a man who in spite of this wandering 
life contracted no bad habits. He was temperate 
and honest, and his name is recorded in more than 
one place in the records of Kentucky. He was a 
church-goer, and, if tradition may be believed, a 
stout defender of his peculiar religious views. He 
held advanced ideas of what was already an im- 
portant public question in Kentucky, the right to 
hold negroes as slaves. One of his old friends 
has said of him and his wife, Nancy Hanks, that 
they were "just steeped full of notions about the 
wrongs of slavery and the rights of men, as ex- 



plained by Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine." 
These facts show that he must have been a man 
of some natural intelligence. He had a trade and 
owned a farm. 

As for Nancy Hanks, less that is definite is 
known of her. In nature, in education^ and in 
ambition she was, if tradition is to be believed, 
far above her husband. She was famous for her 
spinning and her household accomplishments, it 
is said. 

It was to these two people, then, that Abraham 
Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809- His 
birthplace was a farm Thomas Lincoln owned, and 
near Elizabeth, Kentucky. The home into which 
the little chap came was the ordinary one of the 
poorer Western pioneer — a one-roomed cabin with 
a huge outside chimney. Although in many ways 
it was no doubt uncomfortable, there is no reason 
to believe it was an unhappy or a squalid one. The 
log house, with its great fireplace and heavy walls, 
is not such a bad place to live in — some of us are 
thankful to get away into the country to one now 
and then even in winter. Its furniture was simple, 
and no doubt much of it home-made. The very 
utensils were of home manufacture. The feathers 
in the beds were plucked from the geese Nancy 
Lincoln raised. She patched her own quilts, spun 
her own linsey-woolsey. No doubt Thomas Lin- 

[231 



AWKAHAM LINCOLN" 

coin made Abraham's cradle and Nancy Lincoln 
spun the cloth for his first garments. They raised 
their own corn, dried their own fruit, hunted their 
own game, raised their own pork and beef. It was 
the hard life of the pioneer where every man pro- 
vides for his own needs. It had discomforts, but 
it had, too, that splendid independence and re- 
sourcefulness which comes only from being suffi- 
cient to your own needs. 

That the two people who endured its hardships 
and made in spite of them a home where a boy 
could conceive and nourish such ideals and enthu- 
siasms as inspired Abraham Lincoln from his 
early years should have their names darkened by 
unfounded suspicions is a cruel injustice against 
which every honest and patriotic American ought 
to set his face. 



L24J 







14 






if 



III 



a; -S •« 

IJi 

.§ *' §* 



r « e 
<? s ^ 
» ^ '^ 

lis 
II 




The trees that avch over the Spring 




W^ 




bit of dilapidated fence that bounds the Farm 



AN APPEAL TO PATRIOTISM 

RICHARD LLOYD JONES 

CHE most valuable assets of any nation are 
the traditions^ the sacred associations, and 
shrines made holy by the accumulatory 
love with which successive generations bedeck them. 
George Eliot said: "No nation has ever become 
great without holidays and processions dedicated 
to the noble." The United States as yet is notori- 
ously^ poor in this direction. This is not wholly on 
account of its youth, but on account also of the in- 
difference to spiritual welfare which has charac- 
terized a youth enamored of material plenty and 
drunk with the prosperity that comes from the easy 
conquest of fertile acres and exhaustless mines. 
American youths have turned longing eyes toward 
the holy places of Euroj^e, and visited the birth- 
places of Robert Burns and Schiller, the tombs of 
Walter Scott and Victor Hugo, and the millennial 
monument of King Alfred at Winchester ; while the 
birthplace of our matchless American — the strong- 
handed, clear-headed, and great-hearted Lincoln — 
has been left, after its acres have been impover- 
ished by careless tillage, to become a humiliation 
to the poet and the historian, and the butt of ridi- 
cule to the irreverent. 

Since that strong yeoman pioneer, Thomas Lin- 
coln, moved his family across the Ohio into the 

[25] 



almost unbroken wilderness of Indiana^ this historic 
ground has been transferred by title but three times. 
A year ago last August this "little model farm 
that raised a Man/' as Mark Twain has happily 
called it, was j^laced on sale at public auction on 
the court-house stej^s at Hodgenville, Kentucky, 
the neighboring town, to free it from the entangle- 
ment of a j^rotracted litigation between a private 
estate and that of a religious society that had tried 
to acquire it. At the time the Commonwealth of 
Kentucky directed this public sale it was discovered 
that this historic spot was coveted by at least two 
large mercantile establishments, both of which 
were planning to exploit it for commercial ends. 
To prevent this, and believing that this birthplace 
of the "First American" should forever belong to 
the American i)eople, one of the present officers of 
The Lincoln Farm Association bought the farm, 
and at once interested a group of representative 
American citizens in forming a national association 
for the preservation of this ground. 

This group of citizens, acting as a self-appointed 
l)oard of trustees, organized the Lincoln Farm 
Association, which was promptly incorporated un- 
der the laws of the State of New York. The title 
of the Lincoln birthplace farm was transferred 
to this association, and the program for enlarging 
the membership of the society was at once begun. 
[26] 



Rather than make it possible for a few men of 
great wealth to contribute large sums to the devel- 
opment of this national shrine it was decided to 
receive into membership in the society any one 
who contributed to the general fund of the asso- 
ciation as small a sum as twenty-five cents, and to 
limit all contributions to twenty-five dollars — thus 
making the great memorial to Lincoln represent the 
tributes of all the people, whom he loved and 
served, and not those of a privileged few. 

The purpose and plans of this new patriotic so- 
ciety that was to make this Kentucky farm, almost 
in the centre of population of the United States, a 
worthy companion of Mi. Vernon in the affections 
of our countrymen were placed before the Presi- 
dent of the United States and his Cabinet, one of 
whom was one of the organizers of the society. All 
gave it most enthusiastic and hearty support. The 
scheme was then laid before members of the United 
States Senate and House of Representatives, Gov- 
ernors of States, men of letters everywhere, and 
educators of national fame. With their unquali- 
fied endorsement, a year ago this week the Lin- 
coln Farm Association, through the pages of some 
of the most prominent weekly and monthly publi- 
cations and the newspapers throughout the country, 
appealed to the American public for members. The 
re«nonse was immediate and generous. Subscrip- 
[271 



ABRAHAM LINCOLJST 

tions came in from every State in the Union — - 
North and South^ East and West. To every sub- 
scriber the Association issued a handsomely steel- 
engraved certificate of membership, bearing a por- 
trait of Lincoln, a picture of the log cabin in which 
he was born, the White House as it appeared when 
he occupied it, the autographs of all the officers 
and trustees, and the seal of the Association. The 
names of these members are filed in card cata- 
logues and classified by States. When the list of 
members has been completed and the constructive 
work of the Association has culminated in the cen- 
tenary of February 12, IQOQj, this list will be pre- 
served and guarded in the Historical JMuseum, 
which will have been erected on the farm, as the 
honor roll that built the Lincoln Farm Memorial. 

The Lincoln Farm Association to-day represents 
about twenty thousand members. The average sub- 
scription has been a little less than a dollar and 
forty cents to a member, and both the average of 
the subscriptions and the issue of certificates of 
membership have increased with each succeeding 
month. 

During the year the trustees of the Association 
have placed the farm under the personal charge of 
a competent caretaker, who lives on the ground. 
They have sent Mr. Jules Guerin and Mr. Guy 
Lowell, two of America's foremost landscape archi- 

[281 




Saint -Gaud !■ 



erected on the 



(lujilivalc of irhich inai/ he 



Fa 




The Hodgenville Courthouse Square and the road to the Farm 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

tects, to survey the ground and plan its develop- 
ment^ and they have purchased the cabin in which 
Lincoln was born from the speculators who took 
it from the little knoll \vliere it originally stood 
and exploited it as a side-show at various fairs 
and international expositions. This cabin was 
found stored in a cellar at College Pointy on Long 
Island, New York. The Pennsylvania Railroad 
provided a special car, which Mr. John Wanamaker 
decorated with flags and the national colors. The 
Governor of Kentucky sent to New York a special 
squad of State militiamen to escort the old weather- 
v/orn logs, Lincoln's old Kentucky home, back to 
its native soil. Its ride to Louisville is historic. 
It rested a day under military guard at Phila- 
delphia, Baltimore, Harrisburg, Altoona, Pitts- 
burg, Columbus, and Indianapolis. Thousands of 
citizens came to see and begged the privilege of 
touching the sacred pile. jNIayors of cities and 
Governors of States paid eloquent tribute to the 
rude timbers that first sheltered the sad humorist 
of the Sangamon. And when at last the special 
train that bore it, brilliant in red, white, and blue, 
crossed the Ohio into its native border State it 
was met at the Louisville depot with martial music 
and military honors. It was carted through the 
city's streets and placed in the city's park, where 
Colonel Henry Watterson, one of the trustees of 

[291 



the Association, and Adlai E. Stevenson, former 
Vice-President of the United States, himself a 
Kentuckian, made the formal orations welcoming 
back to its native soil the cabin in which Abraham 
Lincoln was born. 

The most cordial cooperation has been pledged 
by many of the surviving commanding generals of 
the Confederate Army, and the Grand Army of the 
Republic has officially endorsed the work of the 
Association, and empowered its commander-in- 
chief to call upon its upwards of six thousand posts 
and to enlisting all patriotic citizens as members 
of the Association, 

On the 12th day of February, 1909, the nation 
v/ill celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of 
Lincoln's birth. On that day the Lincoln Farm 
Association will dedicate the birthplace farm to 
the American people. The principal address will 
be made by President Roosevelt, and the nation's 
most distinguished representatives. North and 
South, will take part in this dedication and cen- 
tennial celebration. No national park within our 
vast domain can emphasize our national ideals and 
our abiding union as will this birthplace farm. 

Ninety-eight years have passed since these rough 
rolling acres made claim to the affections of com- 
ing generations. The soil which cradled the man 
[301 



A recently compJeted 



COPYBISHT 1907 BY VICTOB D. BB6NNEB 

'mhj for a jjortrait of Lincoln 



By Victor D. Brenner 

Member of the National Sculpture Society. Bronze Medal, Paris, moo. 

Silver Medal, St. Louis. Bronze Medal, Buffalo. 



THE WHITE HOUSE 

WASHINGTON 



December 11, 1906. 



My dear Mr. Collier; 

I gladly accept your invitation on behalf of the 
Lincoln Farm Association to make an address on the 
farm, and at the log cabin itself in which Lincoln was 
bom, on February 12, 1909; the one-hundredth annl- 
ve.rsary of Lincoln's birth, and therefore one of the 
moat significant events in American history. As 
Mark Twain has well said, this little farm is "the 
little farm that raised a Man;" and I count myself 
fortunate that it has happened to me to be able as 
President to accept the invitation to make the address 
at such a place on such an occasion. 
Sincerely youra* 



Mr. Robert J Collier, 

Chairman £xBcutive Commit tse. 

The Lincoln Farm Association^ 
74 Broad-»ay, New York. 






The present entrance to the Lincoln Farm 





The creek in ichicli thf boy Lincoln ^lsed to flsli and sirim 
and in which he was nearly drowned 




The old Lincoln family millstone now senses as a "stoop' 
to the side door of the house on the Farm 




The old Louisville and Nashville Pike, supervised by 
Lincoln's father 



of tender strength, and the air which first fed the 
heart that suffered for a whole distracted people, 
and not for a single section, can serve a nobler 
end than ripening corn and squashes. The inspira- 
tion of high citizenship must ever emanate from 
such a spot. In these years, so crammed with 
eager life and so possessed with appetite for gain, 
the lesson of the Lincoln Farm becomes the nation's 
imperative need. Democracy is ever humble. The 
full-grown souls made at simple shrines are worth 
our emulation. The light of history is with each 
succeeding year revealing with greater clearness 
the rare beauty of Lincoln's strong spirit. He 
harmonized his high ideals of speech with con- 
duct ; and back of the black clouds of passion 
through which this uncouth figure led his divided 
people there always shone the soft radiance of a 
love unsoiled by a single touch of hate. The coun- 
try not only reveres the memory of Abraham Lin- 
coln, but it loves the man. To his people — the 
"plain people" — shall ever be entrusted the care 
of his first home, and there they shall, as he him- 
self said he always tried to do, "pluck a thistle 
and plant a flower wherever a flower will grow." 
The past half century's unparalleled develop- 
ment of material riches and prosperity has not 
given our nation the supremacy of the commercial 
world without cost. Our keener patriotic sensibili- 
[311 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ties have been dulled in the strenuous competition 
for individual success. It is a pathetic truth 
which supports Colonel Henry Watterson's asser- 
tion that to-day vi^e love the dollar as once we 
loved liberty. Though we are a virile people we 
are not without need of these things that remind 
us of times when cheeks blushed for the sorrows 
of men. 

To Lincoln's people to-day is given the rare 
privilege of revealing to all generations to come 
that high strain of patriotism known to Lincoln's 
men of nearly fifty years ago. If laws safeguard 
nations less than songs, and sentiment alone in- 
spires the souls of men, how better can we ensure 
the perpetuation of our country's glory than by 
keeping alive and before us the heroic and unselfish 
achievements of those who made firm our founda- 
tions in the past? 

This birthplace farm will symbolize to our 
posterity the strong heroism that left the New 
England hills and the fertile valleys of Virginia, 
self-sufficient in their needs, to hew a nation out 
of a wilderness. It lies in the neutral State that 
in our great crisis was torn by its loyalty to all 
the stars in the flag. It will forever be a monu- 
ment to our union rather than to our lamentable 
differences — and it will be the most signal tribute 

[82] 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ever paid by the American people to the nation's 
greatest servant in its hour of greatest need. Is 
it not a cause worthy of the cooperation and aid 
of every living soul who is proud to be an Ameri- 
can? If this be so, the Board of Trustees invites 
you most cordially to join The Lincoln Farm 
Association. 

It is to the American people that the Board of 
Trustees must appeal. By 1909 The Lincoln Farm 
Association should have a membership of half a 
million loyal Americans. If the American people 
will themselves make this possible, the Lincoln 
centenary will be, indeed, one of the most sig- 
nificant events in the nation's history. 



[33] 



NOTES 

Lincoln book-case, table, and inkstand purchased 
by William H. Lambert, Dec. 6, 189Jf., at sale in 
Philadelphia of the "Lincoln Memorial Collection." 

In a letter to John TV. Keys, dated Springfield, 
III, April IJi, 1886, William H. Herndon, former 
partner of Abraham Lincoln, stated, and made affi- 
davit: "The desk (i. e. book-case), made of rvalnut, 
with four shelves in it, with two leaved doors, be- 
longed to Lincoln and myself in our early prac- 
tise. The desk contained most of our books for 
years. The table is made of walnut, with two 
drawers. The desk and table were placed in our 
office on the same day, say as early as 1850, proba- 
bly before. You now own the desk and table that 
Lincoln once owned. He gave me the desk and 
table, and what you have is genuine and true. 
They have never been out of my sight since they 
were delivered to Lincoln and myself.'* 

In a letter to S. B. Munson, dated Springfield, 
III, May 6, 1887, Herndon wrote: "The inkstand 
was the property of Abraham Lincoln, and was 
kept in his office for years, and out of which he 
wrote *the house divided against itself speech, 
which caused much discussion as to its propriety 
in the Republican ranks of that day. I have 

[341 



had the inkstand in my possession since 1860. I 
know it to be as represented herein; it is true and 
genuine." 

A statement as to the "house divided against 
itself" speech in Herndnn's writing is pasted upon 
the bottom of the inkstand. 

Keys and Munson were associated in ownership 
of the Lincoln Memorial Collection. It was first 
known as the Keys Collection, but when sold it was 
the property of the wife of Munson. 

The book-case and table were destroyed by fire 
June 5, 1906. The inkstand is still in the posses- 
sion of Mr. Lambert. 

Lincoln's office chair (revolving armchair), pur- 
chased by William H. Lambert, Dec. 17, 189^-, from 
Andrew Zane, Esq., of Philadelphia, who wrote on 
that date: "The Lincoln chair purchased by you 
till day has been in my possession about ten years. 
Priof *o that time it was owned by my father, he 
having obtained it from his brother, the Hon. 
Charles S. Zane of Springfield, III, about the time 
of Mr. Lincoln's assassination. My uncle was at 
that time a law partner of Mr. William Herndon, 
formerly a partner of Mr. Lincoln, and the new 
firm occupied the same law office formerly occupied 

[35] 



by Lincoln and Herndon, The chair was taken 
by my father direct from the office and shipped to 
Philadelphia, rvhere it has since been sacredly kept 
by my father and myself. This chair had long 
been the property of Mr. Lincoln and had been 
used by him as his law office-chair through 
most of his professional life. It was not as other 
chairs in his office, but was his special chair in 
front of his desk, in which he always sat, and from 
which he practised law until he was elected Presi- 
dent of the United States. The photograph in the 
back was placed there by my father, he having had 
it so placed, saying he always wanted to see old 
Abe in his chair." 



[36] 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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